Comma in Ability Cost and Aura

Ok, I can understand the comma when you have have to Sacrifice or Discard a card to activate an ability:

, Sacrifice (Creature):

Of late, I have notice that people are using the comma for spearating the tap symbol:

, :

WTF?

I am really old school because I am used to the mana going first then the tap symbol. I don't play the game anymore. I'm still getting used to having the tap symbol before the mana, but now there has to be a comma? When does it end? I remember when the mana came first:

:

Please explain to me the rules, when it comes to writing out the ability cost.

I would also like to know when Enchant Creature became a Enchantment - Aura. When did this happen and how does that work? Is this only for Enchant Creature cards? How does this work for Legendary Enchantments, if this is for all enchantments?

According to the current Oracle wording for Azorius Signet (from Dissension), the tap symbol comes after the mana.

The exact ability on it is "[1], [T]: Add [WU] to your mana pool." And Prahv, Spires of Order has "[4WU], [T]: Prevent all damage a source of your choice would deal this turn."

So it seems to me that the the mana is separated from the tap by a comma, but anywhere you see the tap first is incorrect. And the mana is arranged in the same order as it would be in a casting cost. So, colorless mana first, then snow mana most likely, then colored mana.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the order of colored mana, so I'm going to say it anyway. If more than one color is present, they are in the order that puts the least distance between them on the color wheel. So, it's [WB], not [BW]; or [UR], not [RU]. If 5 colors are present, its [WUBRG]. If 4 colors are present, start with the first one after the color that's missing. So [BRGW], not [WBRG]. Follow this same rule if you have 3 colors that are in sequence. If you have 3 that are not in sequence, start with the color that is not next to one of the other colors. So [BGW], not [GWB].

I'm not sure how much of what I'm about to say you already know, so don't feel offended if I tell you stuff you already know.

All "Enchant ____" except for "Enchant World" became "Enchantment - Aura" in Kamigawa block, I believe. They all have the keyword "Enchant ____" where the blank was whatever they used to enchant. "Enchant World" became "World Enchantment", where World is now a supertype with the same rules that "Enchant World" used to follow. Some people seem to incorrectly think this means its the same as Legendary Enchantments. Regular Enchantments remain unchanged. Legendary Enchantments work like any other Legendary permanent (notice creatures are not Legends now, they are Legendary).

The legend rule also changed. Basically, if you play a copy of a legend that's in play already, both copies are destroyed. So if you and an opponent both have Mirari, but his/hers is in play already, yours isn't a dead card in your hand anymore. You can play yours to destroy his (and yours).

Walls no longer have any inherent abilities. The creature type still exists, and all examples of it now have the keyword "Defender". Other creature types can now have Defender as well.

Sorcery's and Instants still work the same, except they can now have subtypes, the only one so far having been "Arcane".

Essentially, the rules have moved to the point that subtypes (creature types, artifact types, land types, enchantment types, and sorcery or instant types) no longer have any rules associated with them. The only exception is the 5 basic land types. Otherwise, its all on the type and supertypes. They've also moved towards every type line for every card featuring the same format; "Supertypes Types - Subtypes". As for the 5 basic land types, the subtype swamp means "T: Add B to your mana pool." and so on and so forth through them. Big shocker that last part, I'm sure. lol

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask. Also, on Wizard's website you can grab a digital copy of the Comprehensive Rules in any of like 5 or so file formats. I make it a point to always have an up to date copy in Rich Text format. Its editable, searchable, has the scrollbar, and I like being able to easily tell how many pages long it is.

You've seen the program doing this? Automatically? Cause I never have. I thought you meant other people were doing it. That makes me wonder. I shouldn't though, because my method was written down while looking at current oracle wordings of cards from very recent expansions...

Just playing around myself, I can get the program to do it either way. Now, if you just type a string of symbols in, say, [T1GW], it puts the tap first. But this is incorrect to begin with, without the comma.

I had this whole thing type out and even screen capture proof of what MSE2 was doing. Then something accrued to me and I did one last experiment.

You have to remember that I am very old school. I am used to writing out notation out like this:

"1RT:"

When I do this, the tap symbol is automaticily place at the beginning before the colorless mana. I thought these were the new rules and I have been rendering these cards. I must look like a complete idiot.

I guess I will have to start getting used to writing notation differently.

You don't look like an idiot, you look like an old school magic player who missed some changes, and now you have questions. No biggie. I've got a friend who'd be the same way, if I could ever get him back into Magic.

As for the rulebook, something I should've mentioned: maybe hold off until perhaps the end of the month. I say that because fairly soon, there should be an update for Coldsnap. That, or just be aware that its gonna be changed soon.

Nah, don't think of it that way. Magic is an ever changing game. When did you quit? Because really, if you even quit for just a couple years, so much can change. I've played only a few games the last few years, but I've just made a point of keeping up with what's going on anyway, reading on it and such.

You're not supposed to read the rulebook. It's like a dictionary. People don't go reading the dictionary unless they're studying for a spelling bee.

What you should do is find out what keywords (morph, bushido, dredge) and new "features" (ie. hybrid mana, revised rulings, erratae, flip cards) were introduced in recent sets and just study up on those.